Days later, the angels were coming before the LORD again, and Satan the accuser came along with them.
The LORD said to Satan, "What have you been up to?"
Satan the accuser answered him. "I've been all over the earth going back and forth."
The LORD then bragged about Job. "Have you noticed my servant Job? I am so proud of him! He is one of a kind. Holy and good. He respects me and does not live an evil lifestyle.
He even maintains his integrity after I let you ruin him for no reason at all!"
"Things are just things!" Satan said.
"He lost them true enough but that doesn't really hurt him any. Just wait and see what happens when you take away his good health! Strike his flesh and blood and then you'll see... He will curse You to Your face!"
"Okay then", the LORD said. "He is in your hands. But you cannot kill him."
Satan then left the presence of the LORD and attacked Job with painful sores from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet. They hurt and itched so bad that Job took a piece of broken pottery and used it to scrape the scabs as he sat among the ashes.
Job's wife said to him, "Are you still holding on to your integrity? Why don't you just curse God, get it over with, and let him kill you?"
Job replied, "You are talking like someone who doesn't know right from wrong! Should we take all these good things God has given us but then refuse to also accept the bad?"
Throughout all of this, Job did not sin in what he said.
Three friends of Job heard about the trouble that had beset him. They met and agreed to go sympathize with him and comfort him. As they approached his house, they hardly recognized him, he looked so awful. They cried aloud, tore their robes, and put ashes on their heads. They did these things to show that they were mourning Job's condition. They sat on the ground with him for seven days without saying anything. His suffering was so horrible, they did not even speak. They were just there with him to support and encourage him.
Next Chapter - You won't believe what Job says in his "lament"!
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